Nick Johnson QC said: "The Crown would submit to you that the evidence drives you to the sure conclusion that both of these men assisted and encouraged and both of these men intended that Lee Pettite came by at least serious harm on March 1 this year."

He told the jury: “What you’ve heard in evidence does not prove Mr Lovell guilty of murder.”

Mr Sutton will continue on Friday before Smith's defence is summarised.

We'll have live updates below

14:48Gareth Lightfoot

Trial adjourned

He invites the jury to find Gordon Smith not guilty.

The trial adjourns until Monday when Judge Simon Bourne-Arton QC, the Recorder of Middlesbrough, will sum up the case.

14:46Gareth Lightfoot

'Crown has failed miserably'

Mr Woodcock:

Don’t think to yourself that manslaughter is some safety net for the failings of the Crown. It isn’t.

It’s an exceedingly serious offence which requires proof to the same standard as murder.

In the case of Smith we submit the Crown has failed miserably in its task on that, as it does with manslaughter.

14:42Gareth Lightfoot

'Straining at the leash'

He suggests in a case ending in such “catastrophic circumstances”, jurors might be “straining at the leash to find him guilty of something”.

He adds:

Make no mistake about it, members of the jury. Manslaughter is an exceedingly serious offence.

It requires, as with any criminal offence, evidence to prove it so that you are sure it is proved.

You would need to be sure that, even if he didn’t have the murderous intent, that he nevertheless intended some harm to come to Pettite.

14:40Gareth Lightfoot

'No evidence'

It doesn’t detract from the truth of his assertion that as he followed Stubbs across that field he did not know that Stubbs had a gun.

He, Smith, did not have any intention himself that Pettite should suffer serious harm.

So we say to you, ladies and gentlemen, just to make it absolutely clear in his case, there is in his case no evidence upon which you the jury can be sure that he is guilty of either murder or manslaughter.

14:36Gareth Lightfoot

'Neither here nor there'

There was a crisis of inordinate proportions in his life at that time.

Stubbs had just told him: ‘I’ve just shot him.’ ‘What the **** do you mean you’ve just shot him?’

The fact he did not tell anyone of this until he gave evidence in court is, says his barrister, “neither here nor there”.

14:35Gareth Lightfoot

'Exceedingly brave'

He likens Stubbs not replying to police interviews on his solicitor’s advice to taking antibiotics prescribed by a doctor.

He talks of Smith’s admission that he arranged for his brother to collect the three men after the shooting.

You may think he’s being exceedingly brave and immeasurably truthful.

14:28Gareth Lightfoot

'Degree of fallibility'

He says it “doesn’t follow and it’s dangerous” that Smith must have become aware when Lovell claimed Stubbs showed him a gun shortly before the shooting.

He says witnesses did their best and were honest and truthful “but they’re all imbued with a degree of fallibility”, working backwards to something they had no particular reason to remember after learning of a shocking event.

14:23Gareth Lightfoot

'Perfectly possible'

He says the evidence of Lee Pettite’s stepfather Andy Prest was honest, clear and important.

Mr Prest did not see weapons, opening up the possibility or probability that those carrying weapons were concealing them, argues Mr Woodcock.

It is perfectly possible, isn’t it, that when Blue Smith says to you of course there were weapons but I was unaware of it, that he might be telling you the truth.

We submit he was.

14:16Gareth Lightfoot

Does not make sense

He says it does not make sense for Lovell and Smith to invent the two men said to have been told of the fight.

Smith was telling you the truth.

If it was his purpose to go and watch a fight then he is or might be right about that.

To say that because he’s in the habit, or was in the habit, of watching fights in the past, that then on this occasion that points to some propensity to join in an enterprise such as the Crown allege here is weak in the extreme.

14:14Gareth Lightfoot

'Nonsense and unfair'

He says it is “nonsense and unfair” for the prosecution to say that part of their version of events is a fiction.

There’s Blue Smith, fired up with murderous intent for a man when he has no motive other than to share in the intent Lovell has for him, doubled up in ferocity because of the hatred Stubbs has for him, a man for whom Blue Smith has no great affection or any previous association.

14:09Gareth Lightfoot

'There is no contact whatsoever'

How does he spend his time? Apparently either on the TV or on his Xbox.

There is no contact whatsoever, ladies and gentlemen, which you can rely upon, that would prove to you or ought to prove that twixt their return to Wilton Way and their repeat journey to Bankfields, that Smith would have been made aware of Mr Pettite having been shot at all.

He suggests the evidence of a taxi driver corroborated the accounts of Lovell and Smith about speaking to two other men when they got to Bankfields, telling them about the fight and asking if they wanted to come and watch it.

They’re telling the truth, aren’t they, Smith and Lovell, about that?

14:06Gareth Lightfoot

'What rubbish'

Mr Woodcock says:

It’s some kind of frenzy, isn’t it? It’s some measure of the huge scale of hatred that’s going on in the mind of Smith, isn’t it?

Not.

What does he do? He goes back to Wilton Way (his home at the time), and chills.

Or, as the prosecution would have it, stands down awaiting the next manoeuvre in this concerted conspiracy to bring Pettite to an end.

What rubbish, ladies and gentlemen.

14:03Gareth Lightfoot

Standing away

He says Smith was described as standing away in the earlier visit to Bankfields on March 1, and was “taking so little part in any confrontation that was going on to be an irrelevance”.

He says it is “not fair” to agree with the prosecution that he must have heard and known what was said.

Smith and Lovell left Bankfields that afternoon in a taxi.

14:00Gareth Lightfoot

'No malice'

Mr Woodcock:

There is no evidence apart from the dangerous platform the prosecution repeatedly ask you to stand on, that he must have known, he must have been told.

There was a fight he went to watch.

He bears no malice whatsoever against Mr Pettite.

There’s no reliable basis for you to conclude that he was aware of any motive of Stubbs to exact revenge or inflict hurt on Mr Pettite, other than that much-repeated platform ‘he must have known’.

13:58Gareth Lightfoot

'Jolly dangerous'

He says the proposition that the jury can be sure he knew all about it is “jolly dangerous and a jolly unfair way to invite you to proceed”.

He says there was absolutely no motive for Smith to “slaughter” Lee Pettite.

There was no telephone contact between Smith and Lee Pettite, or with Stubbs, and the “broker” responsible for his presence was Lovell.

13:52Gareth Lightfoot

'No motive'

Lo and behold but very reluctantly the prosecution have to accept that.

The prosecution say actually we have to accept that Blue Smith himself had absolutely no motive to be involved in any of this at all, none whatsoever.

He didn’t, did he? He had nothing to do with any earlier incidents.

13:42Gareth Lightfoot

'Complete bunkum'

He urges the jury to be “exceedingly careful” about drawing inferences.

He says the idea that Smith must have known all about Lovell’s business because of his relationship with Lovell’s sister is “complete bunkum”.

He says Smith’s case is “it wasn’t my problem, it wasn’t my ruck, it wasn’t my dispute and I wasn’t anything to do with it”.

13:38Gareth Lightfoot

'Evidence of the weakest kind'

Mr Woodcock:

The prosecution allege time and time again that Gordon Blue Smith knew about the gun.

The evidence for that is paper-thin.

He says any inference that Smith knew Lee Pettite was shot to the foot about half an hour before suffering the fatal gunshot wound would be “based upon evidence of the weakest kind”.

13:24Gareth Lightfoot

'Insurmountable stumbling block'

He points to an eyewitness’s evidence of the words said at the scene: “What the **** have you done?”

He says these were powerful “words of exculpation and being surprised at the situation.

“With great respect to the endeavours of the prosecution, those words are actually an insurmountable stumbling block,” says Mr Woodcock.

13:22Gareth Lightfoot

'I never had the slightest intention'

He says that is a good starting point for the jury to say “yes he’s been a little scrote in the past” but he had now grown up.

He might just be telling you the truth when he said I never had the slightest intention.

Regardless of what is now the obviously murderous intention of Mr Stubbs, I (Smith) never had the slightest intention of joining in with that intent.

13:09Gareth Lightfoot

Expressing remorse for the death

He says Smith said “look, I never had the slightest intention of causing any harm whatsoever to Lee Pettite”.

He says Smith told the jury Lee Pettite should never have died and it was dreadful that he did, expressing remorse for the death.

“Indeed he does mean it when he says it,” adds Mr Woodcock.

12:46Gareth Lightfoot

'Not perhaps the most articulate'

He says those offences are not particularly serious, but “nowhere close” to a tendency or propensity or natural inclination to commit serious offences of violence, and nothing to suggest he goes around in gangs.

He says there has been a “sea change” in his attitude to life since he had started to grow up with a stable relationship.

He might not be the sharpest tack in the box, the brightest button, but he’s nevertheless somebody who is not afraid that you should hear all about him.

He’s not perhaps the most articulate of individuals.

12:43Gareth Lightfoot

'Munchkin of the three'

He has something of a babyfaced appearance described by one important witness in this case as the munchkin of the three.

Mr Woodcock says Smith has a past of which he was not proud, and the defence hid nothing from the jury.

He talks of Smith’s criminal record between 2009 and 2013.

12:40Gareth Lightfoot

'Difficult to see'

He tells jurors:

In actual fact, if it isn’t staring you in the face as obvious, the evidence relied upon by the Crown as proof of Gordon Blue Smith’s guilt of murder is a great deal weaker than they (the Crown) would have liked it to be.